How to Divide Starting With the Basics

By Marija Kero

Dividing starting with the basics is a great way to slowly work up to more advanced concepts. Divide starting with the basics with help from an experienced mathematics professional in this free video clip.

Transcript

Hi, my name is Marija, and today I'm gonna show you how to divide starting with the basics. We'll do a problem like four into 108. So a simple long division problem. So the first thing you do is ask yourself, does four go into the first digit here, which is a one? And the answer is no. So then we move onto the next digit and we say does four go into 10? And it does. So you ask yourself, how many times does four go into 10? And it goes in twice. So you put that two on top of the zero. You always put it on top of the last number that you use. So now the number that you wrote on top, the two, we multiply it by the number that's out here. Two times four is eight, and that eight goes right here under the 10. Now we subtract 10 minus eight and we get two. Once you subtract, you have to bring down the next number. So this eight is going to come down, and now we're gonna divide again. So now we're gonna say how many times does four go into 28? And it goes seven times, so we write the seven right here on top of the eight, and again we follow the same pattern, now we multiply. Seven times four is 28, and again we follow the same pattern and we subtract. So we're doing 28 minus 28, and we get zero. Since we got a zero down here, and there is no numbers left up here, that means that there's not a remainder, and we're done. Four goes into 108, 27 times. And that is how you divide starting with the basics.